Boxcar Identification question

[Fergmiester]

I am in the process of marking my fleet of rolling stock. Within this I have two wooden, outside framed boxcars circa 1924 (Accurail). I am modeling 1960 and am wondering what to do with these two "oddities".

Should I decal them with the full road name and logo or would it be acceptable to mark them with the M.E.S.S. initials? What was the common practice for most major RR/Railways back in the 50's/60's

Regards
Fergie

[Anonymous]

Just the M.E.S.S would be fine...

I am majorly in O, and no one wants to make a plain boxcar with just reporting marks without big logos.

Chris

[Anonymous]

Fergie, I was almost cognitive in 1960 (10 years old). I remember seeing outside braced boxcars when a kid, can't specifically state I saw them in 1960, however I saw them on the Northern Pacific and Great Northern. They were heavily weathered and I would guess only the ones in good shape were being used. Another option would be to paint them gray or silver for M.O.W. work!

Mark DeSchane

[cacole]

Another possibility would be to make maintenance of way cars out of them by painting them solid gray and putting just the letters MW and a road number with an X in front of it to indicate that they can't be used in interchange service. Basically, they would look like this:

MW
X12

[jrbernier]

Outside braced boxcars like the Accurail model will fit in just fine. I remember seeing these cars as late as the early 70's(in company service). I remember seeing them in the mid 60's in revenue service(Milw).
The double sheathed USRA box cars were gone for the most part(or rebuilt with the use of steel 'kits').
My layout is set to 1959 and I have lots of Accurail 'wood' cars mixed in with AAR and PS-1 boxcars - Just like the prototype!

Jim Bernier

[DSchmitt]

You could do the full markings, weather them heacily and add "MW" or an "X" in front of the number to put the cars into maintence of way service.

[Wdlgln005]

You could try a different version of the Lettering? Include a slogan pardon our mess? (The Mess Line?) In either case, build some sense of history for your line. Lettering, typeface, slogan etc all change over time. THe cars could have been repainted at some time, and reweighted more frequently. THere could be other changes with new brake gear, new trucks, new doors etc. Those old boxcars also might just be the ticket for a particular shipper on your line.

[twhite]

Fergie: I'd go with the road name and logo, but you might want to consider what a lot of railroads did with outside braced cars--they put the logo on the door (GN, WP, Burlington being just some of them), and then the railroad's initials and reporting marks on the sides. Your logo would look so COOL on the door--kind of like GN's goat, only different.
Tom

[Eriediamond]

Fergie, I'd go with the M.E.S.S. on one end and your logo on the other similar to the way the ERIE did on their cars back in the early days and then heavy weathering. Also I'd add detail like bent stirups and hand rails, bent hand brake and maybe exposed raw wood or pieces of the roof walk broken off to show a lot of use and just about ready for a rebuild or replacement. Ken PS- with all these excellent suggestions, and you still don't know what to do the them----------- give em to me!![(-D][(-D]

[Jetrock]

Another suggestions: If those old boxcars have arch-bar trucks (ones made from strap iron bolted together, instead of cast as one piece--they look "flat" whereas cast trucks look more "rounded"), they were banned from interchange use by safety regulations: a stencilled sign "NOT FOR INTERCHANGE USE" would be a neat detail to add. Plenty of short lines used wooden boxcars well after the big railroads abandoned them--as MoW or as revenue equipment for local use only.

I'm modeling a similar era and have some wooden boxcars too--the SN was kind of a dumping ground for Western Pacific's worn-out old equipment.

[Fergmiester]

Jetrock I like your suggestion and will more than likely run with it. Thanks guys for all your in put. As usual you all came through with excellent ideas.

Fergie